The meteoric rise of Aaron Judge as a young superstar in the MLB has also led to the creation of some interesting catchphrases which reference the judicial nature of the player’s name. “All Rise” and “Here Comes the Judge” are two such references made by announcers and fans alike when Aaron Judge steps up to the batter’s box. The use of this language in connection with Judge has even been incorporated into ESPN’s well-known “This Is SportsCenter” ad campaign.

The formal opposition filed by the MLBPA challenges the ‘440 trademark application on multiple grounds under Trademark Act including grounds for priority and likelihood of confusion, dilution by blurring, false suggestion of connection with a person, and consisting of a person’s name without written consent from that person. MLBPA’s opposition notes that there’s no issue of priority as any date of first use upon which Chisena can rely is after the date that the MLBPA and Judge first used and acquired rights in the Judge name as a mark.

On February 21st, a month before the MLBPA filed its formal notice of opposition with the TTAB on the “HERE COMES THE JUDGE” mark, the TTAB granted a request to extend the MLBPA’s time to oppose another trademark application filed by Chisena through May 23rd of this year. This opposition targets U.S. Trademark Application No. 87528414, which would protect the use of the standard character mark “ALL RISE” in commerce on similar styles of clothing. Interestingly, the TTAB has also granted extensions of time to oppose this mark to a Patricia Judge, that extension also extending to May 23rd. Although there’s no identifying information in the official extension issued by the TTAB, Patricia is the name of Aaron Judge’s mother and this party is being represented by counsel headquartered in California a few hours away from the city where Judge was born and spent his childhood.

The Author

Steve Brachmann
is a freelance journalist located in Buffalo, New York. He has worked professionally as a freelancer for more than a decade. He writes about technology and innovation. His work has been published by The Buffalo News, The Hamburg Sun, USAToday.com, Chron.com, Motley Fool and OpenLettersMonthly.com. Steve also provides website copy and documents for various business clients and is available for research projects and freelance work.

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